Mississippi State football coach

The life and career of Mike Leach was that of a true American original. From his beginnings as a college rugby player to helping take the Air Raid to the ...

And that notion will be much of his on-field legacy, as his stint in Lubbock will epitomize the power of his scheme over talent. Washington State won 11 games in 2018, the most in school history, after Leach persuaded East Carolina transfer Gardner Minshew to come to the Palouse instead of being a backup for Alabama. Leach never forgot that this reporter lived in South Boston, and every conversation circled back to his fascination with local gangster Whitey Bulger. It would jerk in completely different directions, and by the end of his answer you'd have forgotten the question because he had veered through politics, modern art and mascot battles. In a New York Times profile by author Michael Lewis in 2005, Leach said: "I ought to have Mike's Pirate School," he said. Back in 2009, "60 Minutes" profiled Leach's Texas Tech team as "the powerhouse that shouldn't be." Among his many legacies will be as perhaps the most adept at defying gravity at some of the hardest spots in the sport. His call sheet looked more like an airline snack box menu, a weekly mockery of the schematic gurus sleeping in their offices looking for an edge. "There will never be another Mike Leach to walk this earth or grace the sideline at a college football game." It never bothered Leach that he wasn't deemed fit for a blue-blooded address like Austin, Tuscaloosa or Los Angeles, as his nonconformity act was always better suited for off-Broadway. Mike Leach was schematically brilliant, intellectually fascinating and stubborn, flawed and unconventional enough to never get a chance to coach a blue blood. He touched three major conferences -- SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12 -- and can be traced through nearly every boldface name in the sport the past two decades as a colleague or rival.